Charles Benjamin Payne, Jr., M.D.
Charles B. Payne, Jr., M.D., 76, of Germantown, died at Hospice of Dayton on August 26. He was the husband of Beth Anne Scranton (Holthausen) Payne, whom he married in 2000. Born in Charleston, West Virginia, on November 16, 1930, he was the son of the late Charles Payne, D.D.S. and Emily Jones Payne. He received his B.S. in zoology from Yale University in 1952, one of only four African-American men in his class. Twenty-four years later, his daughter Deborah Hamilton Payne graduated from Yale with a degree in fine arts, making them the first African-American, father-daughter team to graduate from Yale University. Following his graduation from Yale, he attended the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, graduating in 1956. After an internship at the Cooper Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, he served his country as a Captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and was stationed in Hokkaido, Japan, from 1957 to 1961, where he had his own Jazz radio program.
After leaving active duty, he completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital followed by a Research Associate position in Pulmonary Diseases at the Cleveland Veterans Administration Hospital. He then entered private practice in Cleveland. Upon leaving private practice, he served as Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland, Case Western Reserve, the Union Institute and Wright State University, where he had a dual appointment to the Dayton Veteran's Administration Medical Center until his retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1996. After his retirement, he served on the Admissions Committee for the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. His active professional life included various consulting appointments, writing medical articles and textbook chapters, testifying before the state legislature on issues concerning lung disease and serving on the editorial board of medical journals. He was a long-time member of the American Medical Association, American Society of Internal Medicine, American College of Chest Physicians, American Lung Association, American Thoracic Society and the Gem City Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Society. He was also a well-respected member of the International Plastic Modelers Society, where he researched and built historically accurate models of military aircraft, tanks and ships.
He is survived by Deborah Hamilton Payne Stenson, Lisa Carolyn Payne Jones, Charles Benjamin Payne III, David Cooke Payne and their mother, Eleanor Hamilton Payne; Judy H.R. Kirby, Scott C. Payne and their mother, Hazel Gibson Payne; former wife Jill T. Payne; twelve grandchildren, Jessica Eleanor Payne, Robert Lawrence Stenson, Tamala Mitchell, Jackie Wren, Emily Grace Payne, Erica A. Payne, Charles B. Payne IV, Ryan Charles Jones, Leah Danielle Jones, Evan Cooke Jones, Alexsander S. Kirby and Quinn D. Rathmell; and one great grand-grandson, Jonathan Payne. He was predeceased by one son, Daren E. Payne. He is also survived by his wife, Beth Anne Scranton (Holthausen) Payne, her daughters, Erica A. Holthausen and Linsley J. Armstrong, and one grandson, Michael P. Armstrong.
Friends and relatives are invited to attend a memorial service at the Miami Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 8690 Yankee Street, Dayton, on September 15, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. A private burial service will be held for the immediate family. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the American Lung Association of Ohio, 1950 Arlington Lane, Columbus, OH 43228; National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 East Freedom Way, Cincinnati, OH 45202; Amnesty International, 53 West Jackson, Suite 731, Chicago, IL 60604; or Doctors without Borders, 333 7th Avenue, Second Floor, New York, NY 10001.
